“From one shot to one sip come better experience and protection.” Ju Shu, general manager of Cansino SPH Biologics, said when this world first inhaled Ad5-nCoV came into use a week ago.

Starting Oct. 26, an inhaled COVID-19 vaccine in a “coffee cup” is launched citywide, which is good news for those afraid of needle, and a new solution for COVID-19 prevention within the country. “Some citizens ready to go abroad or with frequent business trips, or afraid of needles chose this vaccine to enhance immunity.” said Ju Shu.

Convenient and efficient, this inhaled vaccine has “a bit of sweet”.

In the afternoon on Oct. 27, Mr. Chen, a citizen came to community health center at Gucun town, Baoshan district to receive the inhaled COVID-19 vaccine. “The whole process is as easy as drinking bubble tea. You won’t feel anything other than a bit of sweet.”

You only need to breathe in the mouth easily and then hold your breath for 5 seconds to complete the inoculation. This new inoculation method not only brings good experience to the vaccinator, but also avoids the local adverse reactions such as pain at the injection site caused by traditional intramuscular injection.

"Many people recalled that the 'taste' of the inhaled vaccine would be slightly sweet, because we added a very low concentration of sucrose in the adjuvant of the vaccine, which is conducive to improving the stability of the adenovirus vector." said the Ju Shu.

In addition to the innovation of the inoculation method, this advanced vaccine, the first of its kind in the world, also shows remarkable immune protection. Studies have shown that respiratory droplets and close contact are still the main transmission routes of the COVID-19. The inhalation of vaccine can stimulate the immune response on the respiratory mucosa, the "first contact" of the body with the virus, and put on an "invisible mask" for the inhaler, realizing the triple protection, adding a strong line of defense for the human body in addition to humoral and cellular immunity.

The inhaled vaccine has been tested in 10,000 patients, and it has shown better humoral immunity (neutralizing antibodies) while stimulating lung mucosal immunity. Results of a sequential enhanced immune persistence study of inhaled COVID-19 vaccine published on MedRxiv, a medical preprint platform, show that the inhaled vaccine has sequential enhanced antibody persistence and safety for up to 6 months.

Moreover, as the world's first advanced vaccine, inhaled COVID-19 vaccine only needs one-fifth of the intramuscular dose, which has greatly reduced the overall adverse reactions after vaccination, allowing vaccinators to obtain effective immune protection with a moment of breath.

Unclogged channel for vaccine licensing making us feel “sweeter” in Baoshan

In February 2021, Cansino SPH Biologics was officially launched in Baoshan. With the full support of CPC Baoshan committee and district government, it realized the "Baoshan speed" of "establishment, construction and production in the same year". Now, it has the scale capacity from the production of raw liquid to the filling of preparation. "In the past two years, we have fully felt the care and love from the district Party committee, the district government and various functional departments. For the medicine Kangxinuo, landing Baoshan, rooted Baoshan 'taste sweeter'." said Ju Shu.

At present, Cansino SPH Biologics has an annual production capacity of more than 100 million bottles of adenovirus type 5 vector novel COVID-19 vaccine. As one bottle can be used for multiple doses, it can meet the needs of inhaled inoculation. Next, the company will also make all-out efforts to ensure the production and supply of the inhaled COVID-19 vaccine, so that more citizens in need can "inhale" the vaccine.

Vaccines have a long production cycle, high technological requirement and strict regulatory requirements. In the pharma industry competition, if the drug is launched one day earlier, it may be able to take the preemptive opportunity and win the market. In particular, the production and supply of COVID-19 vaccines is closely related to the safety and health of the people. In order to remove the blockage and speed up vaccine licensing, CPC Baoshan committee and district government has made enormous efforts.

In September 2022, Shanghai Innovative Vaccine Sci-tech Park was officially inaugurated in Baoshan. With a "park within a park" pattern, the park has built an innovative and inclusive industrial chain ecosystem to comprehensively improve the scale of the vaccine industry in the park. Cansino SPH Biologics is also among the first "lead enterprises on innovative vaccine chain" in the park.

Meanwhile, Baoshan also revised and published Several Policies of the Baoshan district on Accelerating the High-quality Development of Biomedicine and Life Health Industry (referred to as Baoshan District Special Policy 2.0 for Biomedicine), including 43 new policies in 10 aspects, giving the most favorable policy support for the whole life cycle of bio-medicine enterprises.

In Ju Shu's opinion, the release of Special Policy 2.0 further strengthens the policy support for all links of the industry chain, such as R&D, clinical trial, production, and application, injecting confidence and motivation into the biomedicine enterprises in Baoshan.

Starting from scratch, biomedicine industry in Baoshan is striving with higher quality.

According to the report to the 20th National Congress of CPC, high-quality development is the primary task for building a modern socialist country in all respects. To build a modern industrial system, we need to promote the integrated development of strategic emerging industries, and build new growth engines such as next-generation information technology, artificial intelligence, biotechnology, new energy, new materials, high-end equipment, and green and environmental protection.

With the strategic positioning of being the "main front of Shanghai’s Science and Technology Innovation Center Initiative", in less than two years, and with a goal of building the North Shanghai Biomedicine Industrial Park, Baoshan found the right track and build up industry ecosystem starting from building industrial chain and innovation chain. In March 2020, North Shanghai Biomedicine Industrial Park was officially awarded as one of the five municipal characteristic biomedicine industrial parks, realizing the high-quality development of the biomedicine industry in the aspects of industrial form, track momentum, factor guarantee and scientific innovation concentration.

The industrial chain layout of North Shanghai Biomedicine Industrial Park has been continuously improved from the initial lack of large and strong enterprises settling in, and scattered industrial layout, to today’s the settlement of leading companies, and the emergence of the long tail effect. Here, pharmaceutical R&D and production enterprises such as Bao Pharma, Zhaohui Pharmaceutical and Drug Farm have enhanced their presence; the Cansino SPH Biologics vaccine was mass-produced and marketed; leading mRNA enterprises such as RNACure, Abogenbio have settled in; H&B and Unicar specializing in stem cell CAR-T have started construction; CRO Medicilon has chosen to land in Meilan Lake; enterprises featuring precision medicine such as HISTO and Tongshu Biotechnology have continued to grow; vitro diagnostic reagents, instruments and equipment, implantable materials and other equipment ecosystems complement each other. From January to July 2022, the total industrial output value of pharmaceutical manufacturing industry in Baoshan district increased by 25.4% year-on-year.

Starting from scratch, biomedicine industry in Baoshan leaps forward with higher quality. The report to the 20th CPC National Congress called for exploring new development areas and tracks, and constantly creating new drivers and strengths for development. In the future, on the new track of biomedicine industry, Baoshan will follow the general idea and goal of sci-tech orientation, industrial agglomeration, and integration of industry and urban development, and strive to build a development system of biomedicine industry integrating "innovation and R&D – pilotscale experiment acceleration -- scale industrialization -- regional application diffusion", and realize the trio-integration of "medical research, medicine, and medical treatment".

In terms of functions, the park coordinates the improvement of ecology, production and living standard, and strive to build North Shanghai Biomedicine Industrial Park into a new benchmark for the development of the biomedicine industry in Shanghai, an area undertaking high-quality clusters of the biomedicine industry in the Yangtze River Delta, and a new highland for the development of the whole industrial chain of China's biomedicine industry.